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U.S. Criticizes Cuba on Human Rights
By Sam Cage, Associated
Press Writer, April 12 2005.
GENEVA - The United States has filed a
new resolution at the U.N. Human Rights
Commission criticizing Cuba's record on
abuses and requested that the world body
keep the communist country's record under
observation, officials said Tuesday.
Keeping up its pressure on Cuba, the United
States proposed the renewal of top U.N.
investigator Christine Chanet's mandate
to report to the commission on the human
rights situation there. The commission,
often led by Washington, regularly criticizes
Cuba.
In her report to the commission on abuses
in Cuba, which Chanet presented last month,
she noted the government's release of 18
political prisoners last year was a positive
step, but did "not signify the end
of the repression" because other political
detainees were still jailed.
Chanet urged Cuba to improve its treatment
of political prisoners, who often receive
poor food, hygiene and medical treatment.
She also said Cuba should stop penalizing
journalists, academics and activists for
acts of free expression.
Chanet's report said Cuban authorities
arrested people in 2004 for expressing anti-government
opinions, working with international human
rights organizations and participating in
associations or academic groups deemed counterrevolutionary.
Cuba has never allowed a U.N. human rights
envoy to visit, claiming such visits could
infringe on its sovereignty. Chanet prepared
her report based on meetings with campaigners,
human-rights investigators and other governments.
Washington requested that the commission
renew resolutions from previous years condemning
Cuba's human rights record, according to
the draft text of the resolution.
In past years the vote has almost always
been close. The commission last year narrowly
passed a resolution by other Latin American
nations critical of Cuba's rights record.
It was adopted 22-21 with 10 abstentions.
Censure by the U.N. watchdog brings no
penalties but spotlights a government's
record, and delegations lobby hard in an
effort to avoid it.
Cuba has launched a campaign to defend
itself, and a Cuban foreign ministry document
titled "Cuba and Human Rights,"
said the United State's strategy is focused
on "fabricating a false perception
of an intolerant and rigid society."
Separately, the United States and European
Union co-sponsored a resolution condemning
abuses in Belarus. It expressed "deep
concern" that senior officials have
been implicated in the 1999 disappearance
or execution of three political opponents.
It singled out one of the three who disappeared,
former Interior Minister Yuri Zakharenko.
Also missing are Viktor Gonchar, the former
vice speaker of the Belarusian parliament,
and his friend, the businessman Anatoly
Krasovsky.
The resolution noted the disappearance
of Russian TV cameraman Dmitry Zavadsky
in 2000 and "the continuing investigatory
cover-up."
It also cited findings of observers that
last year's elections fell "significantly
short" of Belarus' European commitments
to allow free and fair voting.
In Belarus, prosecutors said Tuesday they
had reopened the investigation into Zavadsky's
disappearance.
US seeks extension of UN scrutiny of
human rights in Cuba
GENEVA, 11 (AFP) - The United States has
formally put forward a draft resolution
in the United Nations human rights commission
seeking to prolong UN scrutiny of human
rights in Cuba, a US official said.
"On top of the 25 member states of
the European Union, we have the support
of Canada, Australia, and Japan, in all
37 countries," Joel Danies, a member
of the US delegation to the Commission said.
Only eight EU countries are currently members
of the 53-state commission and able to vote
on the resolution.
The mildly-worded resolution calls for
the extension of the mandate of a UN expert
examining the human rights situation in
Cuba, Christine Chanet, which is due to
run out this year.
It stopped short of asking Havana to receive
Chanet or making precise reference to human
rights violations under president Fidel
Castro's regime.
Chanet would be tasked with reporting back
to the commission in its 2006 session.
The resolution is due to be put to the
vote at the end of the week.
Cuba has refused to cooperate with Chanet,
who has warned that dozens of dissidents
caught in a wave of arrests in 2003 were
being held in "alarming conditions".
The Commission last year narrowly voted
to adopt a resolution criticising a crackdown
on dissidents in Cuba, which had been proposed
by Honduras and backed by Washington.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque
said in March that he believed the United
States would not get the support it needs
this year to pass the motion.
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